Pick your 4 Favourite Spots please-off the top of your head

I love lots of places—San Francisco, Sydney, Yosemite, London, Venice, lots of my own country. But…

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  1. Segovia at night. 70 km or so north of Madrid. The hour I took walking around the outer ring road was an almost holy experience and the best hour of any trip I’ve ever taken

  2. Cable Beach, Western Australia. I can think of that place and become instantly calmer. I don’t know why it gets set apart from any other beach I’ve been on, maybe it was arriving there after about a week of being dusty driving across the northwest of the country, maybe it was the company on my Contiki tour, but it still resonates with me. (just beats out Cathedral Gorge in Western Australia, best “concert hall” I’ve ever been in, bar none). The absolutely oddest connection…whenever I start into the final part of the first movement of Keith Jarrett’s Koln Concert, I have to consciously keep putting my fingers on the piano keys because I’m instantly AT Cable Beach.

  3. Dursey Island, Ireland. Truly the last bastion of beyond. You can only get across by cablecar. The natives speak the true gaeltacht. And there was me and some sheep to have lunch facing the wild ocean and incredible green. I don’t think I need much more.

  4. Banff National Park. Especially the Vermilion Lakes. It’s just so breathtaking.

cinnamon bay St. john USVI

amalfi

Inner passage Alaska

I need five:

Paris

Cote d’Azur

Catalunya

Pretty much anywhere in Italy

Santorini



Banff is also a great choice

In no particular order

  • Edinburgh on Hogmanay night
  • Most places in Italy but in particular, Amalfi Coast, Lombardy, Assisi, Montalcino/Montelpuciano stretch
  • Osaka or Fuji Lakes during Cherry Blossom season
  • Going down the barge from Inverness to Lake District

I would add either the inside passage from B.C. to Alaska or Hubbard’s Glacier from our recent trip. Both impossibly breathtaking.

George

Carmel/Pebble Beach
Paris
NYC
Napa Valley

NOLA
SF
NYC
Santa Barbara County

The 15th tees at Cypress, also 15th tee at Pine Valley, the 7th tee at Pebble, the 9th tee at Royal County Down, and the 13th green at Salem Country Club.

The North Coast of Kauai

NZ South Island

Paris

Hunting at Goose Field with my son.

My flightsee over the Southern Alps in south NZ would be in the top 10. So would 18th hole at Harbour Town. Other honourable mentions off the top of my head would include the Albaicin at sunset, looking across to the Alhambra at Granada, Algonquin Park in Ontario and a place my family and I were fortunate to borrow for a week called “Sans Souci”, a villa right on the Moyenne Corniche looking down at Monaco and the Mediterranean. I also love the Musee D’Orsay in Paris and the cathedral at Chartres.

I like these threads because they get me thinking of places I should go. These are my picks now but some could change with my mood tomorrow. That is how travel goes

La Digue, Seychelles - If you lay on a beach here you really don’t give a thought on what is going on in the rest of the world.

Chile - So many varied things to do from Patagonia to the Atacama Desert, fantastic coastline with islands like Chiloe to visit, the Andes, Torres del Paine, volcanoes…

The US West - Just get on Route 66 and then go north, south, east, and west. There are national parks, great views, and Native American culture. This is always an easy accesible vacation and for me one of the best.

The Himalayas - You need some time to go but there is a lot going on up there.

Goosenecks State Park, Utah
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Paris - Street Markets
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Glacier Point - Yosemite NP
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Waipio Valley Hawaii
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Snake River overlook, Grand Teton National Park at 5am, coffee in hand, Toyo 45CF loaded with film, Gossen light meter dangling from my neck, waiting for the sun to rise behind me.

Pere Lachaise cemetery, Paris at dusk, with my trusty leica M2 and a fast lens.

Adirondack chair, cabin 8, The Elms cottages, Lake Luzerne in the Adirondacks, NY about 7 am with an old book and fresh coffee, watching the mist on the river, heavy sweatshirt and shorts, 45 degrees. Every one else is still asleep.

Kidney shaped Pool, Uncle Tonys house, Mission Viejo California–It’s heat, not humidity.

My back deck. Anyday its 70ish and comfortable-- and I have gas in the Weber, and a glass in my hand.

Deadmans Beach (private), Peter Island, BVI, cold Corona, favorite girl-- scantily dressed. :slight_smile:

Mid-day, shopping, Charolette Amalie, St Thomas, USVI in still damp shorts (from the pool that is), in and out of the little streets only when there are NO CRUSIESHIPS in port.

Hungary, entering that little bakery in Wimbeldon, across from our flat, for a taditional British breakfast with the Mrs.

Central Park, NYC. Anytime

Of the places I’ve been:

Jerusalem at the Western Wall friday night with a full moon in the sky

Sunrise over the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, tanzania

Sunset at the Grand Canyon

Four spots… that’s not many!

#1 - Salisbury Plains, South Georgia Island (UK)

King Penguin rookery with 100s of 1,000s of them

#2 - Cabo Polonio, Uruguay

Small fisherman community, hard to access with no running water or electricity

#3 - Theodore Roosevelt Ntl Park, North Dakota, USA

Might be the least known National Park in all of the US - if you look carefully the first picture is worthy of a double OMG. I mean: OMG OMG.

#4 - Anywhere In France, but if I had to choose one spot: La Vallée Blanche

… in the French Alps, a ski itinerary over the Mer de Glace glacier, down from Mont Blanc & Aiguille du Midi - I didn’t have a pic for that one unfortunately, so here is one from a French magazine

EDIT: didn’t mean to post stuff with the copyright notice, but I’m too lazy to upload them again.

4 is way too little with so many great places in the world. Actually I would always pick some place I have never been than to go back to a place I have already experienced.

I looked up some articles on Cabo Polonio. I’ll put it on my bucket list

1 Like

I had no intention of making it easy. [wow.gif]

Torres del Paine is a sure thing for me someday, I’ve seen way too many pics. All of you have wonderful photographs, thanks for sharing. Whoever wants to is welcome to wander through my world(s) (at least those with a digicam involved, been too lazy to scan my manual prints in):

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Paris
The north shore of Kauai
Kyoto
Russian Hill in San Francisco

The penguin photo is amazing!

George

Paris
Venice
San Gimignano at night, few tourists
Key West
Italian Lake District
Ireland

Siem Reap Cambodia
Siena
Kumbu Region in Nepal
Prague
Paris